Mumbai: For the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), history has never served as a guide. It has always been a weapon, selectively wielded whenever anything Islamic enters the frame. In the past, it was Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, whose name Maharashtra’s BJP invoked relentlessly to rally its base and stoke polarisation in the state. Now, in a fresh twist, the target is Tipu Sultan, the 18th-century Mysore ruler whose legacy is now being exhumed and vilified in the same playbook.
The controversy broke out on February 14, after the BJP and Maharashtra deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena took objection to the Malegaon deputy mayor Shan-e-Hind Nihal Ahmed’s decision to hang Tipu Sultan’s photo in her office. Both right- wing parties demanded that the photo be taken down and the deputy mayor should “face action” for her decision to put up the photo.
On the same day, Congress state president Harshwardhan Sapkal compared the Mysore ruler with King Shivaji. Terming Sultan as a “great leader”, Sapkal said, “The kind of bravery that Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj possessed, and the concept of ‘Swarajya’ that he introduced… following in that very tradition and taking inspiration from his ideals, Tipu Sultan waged war against the British. In that sense, Tipu Sultan was a great warrior who displayed immense bravery and was a true son of India. He never allowed any poisonous or communal ideas to sway him. As a symbol of bravery, we should view Tipu Sultan as equivalent to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.”
This prompted BJP leader and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to call the comparison “unacceptable”. “Maharashtra holds Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in the highest esteem. He is our deity. Anybody who dares to insult him will get a befitting reply,” Fadnavis said.
Within hours of the CM’s statement, BJP activists in Pune launched a violent agitation outside Congress office. Stones were pelted, and as many as nine persons were injured in the attack.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Ranjan Kumar Sharma said, “BJP workers were holding an agitation near Congress Bhavan in the afternoon. After the agitation was over, some BJP members went to the Congress Bhavan premises and started raising slogans. Congress workers also raised slogans from inside… and there was stone pelting from both sides. Three Congress workers, two BJP workers, two women constables and two journalists were injured. Both sides have registered FIRs against each other.”
Following a complaint by a BJP leader, Pune Police have also registered an FIR against Sapkal under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 192 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 196 (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), and 356 (defamation).
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
